Personnel change at Thales DIS BPS Deutschland GmbH

Michael Neukranz takes over as managing director

At the turn of the year, Michael Neukranz (graduate mechanical engineer) took over as managing director of Thales DIS BPS Deutschland GmbH. He succeeds Dr. Frank Schmidt, who retired on January 1, 2026, after more than 30 years in the card industry.

Dr. Schmidt had a lasting impact on the development of the site. Back in the 1990s, he initiated the development of the first contactless cards together with the former company Micron Graz.

The expertise gained in semiconductor processing laid the foundation for contactless card technology at Thales DIS BPS Deutschland. To this day, the Wutha-Farnroda site in Thuringia stands for end-to-end, vertically integrated manufacturing: from wafer processing and in-house antenna production to the finished, programmed end product.

Michael Neukranz 's future tasks will focus on securing and further developing the site in the long term. In addition, the transformation will be consistently leveraged to tap into additional growth opportunities in the areas of digitalization and data security, particularly in close cooperation with the parent company Thales.

"Wutha-Farnroda stands for the highest level of expertise in vertically integrated manufacturing. My goal is to secure the site's long-term future and develop it in a targeted manner – and, together with Thales, to consistently exploit additional growth opportunities in digitalization and data security," says Michael Neukranz, Managing Director of Thales DIS BPS Deutschland GmbH.

Michael Neukranz brings around 30 years of management experience in the automotive sector at one of the largest suppliers to this task. Most recently, he was responsible for the acquisition, industrialization, and ramp-up of battery production at the Bosch Fahrzeugelektrik Eisenach site as part of an international network.